Update: Warner Bros has released the following statement in response to these reports: “’Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is a stage play, with no plans for there to be a film.”

Back in July, Warner Bros. Pictures filed a trademark for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. This might not seem surprising since the film studio was the distributor of every single film in the Harry Potter franchise, as well as the upcoming spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. However, Warner Bros. has absolutely nothing to do with the stage production of the play in the United Kingdom, which was also just published as a book at the end of last month. So having them file a trademark for motion pictures, merchandise and more seemed rather unnecessary, unless of course they were actually planning to make a movie.

Now a new rumor seems to indicate that Warner Bros. Pictures would like to turn Harry Potter and the Cursed Child into a film trilogy that they hope to begin as early as 2020. In addition, they want to bring franchise star Daniel Radcliffe back in the lead role. Find out more about the proposed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child movie trilogy after the jump. Read More »

Even though J.K. Rowling has said that Harry Potter and the Cursed Childmarks the end of the story of The Boy Who Lived, that doesn’t mean she’s done given fans some little gems from the wizarding world she created so many years ago. By way of Pottermore, the author has unveiled some of the original sketches she created of characters such as Harry Potter, Rubeus Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape and even Peeves the Poltergeist.

Check out the J.K. Rowling Harry Potter sketches after the jump. Read More »

The Toy Box is a recurring feature at /Film that rounds up some of the newest and coolest collectibles, decorations, gadgets and other memorabilia that you nerds might want for your shelves.

This edition of The Toy Box features a Harry Potter edition of a classic board game, some beautiful new Christmas tree ornaments featuring characters from Pixar Animation, and the best Deadpool figure you’ll ever find.

The artwork of 100% Soft is unmistakable. The artist just has a way of creating the most adorable versions of characters from film and television, always giving proper respect to even the largest roster of characters. And his latest exhibition opening this weekend is no different.

Gallery 1988 is proud to present Mass Hysteria 2, the latest show featuring artwork by 100% Soft, aka Truck Torrence, and ahead of the opening of the show on Friday in Los Angeles, some of his pieces featuring the characters of Harry Potter, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Walking Dead and Mars Attacks! have been revealed online.

Check out the new pieces from the 100% Soft Gallery 1988 show after the jump. Read More »

Major companies filing patents isn’t always news, because many major companies file patents just because they can. This is especially true in the theme park industry, where potential ride and show technology is patented so it can be utilized in a potential future attraction. You know – just in case. After this is a competitive business. Disney was supposedly planning to utilize Kuka arm technology to build a ride based on The Incredibles, only to watch Universal snatch the exclusive rights to this tech for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the headliner attraction at their The Wizarding World of Harry Potter lands in Universal Studios Florida, Universal Studios Hollywood, and Universal Studios Japan.

So don’t look at Universal’s newest patent as solid confirmation for what we might see in a future Harry Potter ride – look at it as a suggestion of what Universal may be considering for a future attraction. And this patent centers around a “video game ride” that will allow riders to to interact with and change their experience.

Harry Potter’s story came to an end nine years ago with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or so we thought at this time. In truth, the wizarding world has continued to thrive since the “last” Harry Potter book. This fall’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them picks back up with the Potterverse in a different time and place on the big screen, while this summer’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child brought back Harry himself, now all grown up. And we’re still not done.

Pottermore announced today that a trio of “bite-sized eBooks” will arrive this fall under the banner Pottermore Presents. The books will dig deeper into Hogwarts, dishing out new stories about professors like Horace Slughorn and Minerva McGonagall and new details about Hogwarts itself. Read More »

This fall brings Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to theaters, expanding the wizarding world that J.K. Rowling created, complete with a screenplay written by the novel’s author herself. The most recent trailer finally laid out the basic premise of the story for us with some magical creatures escaping from Newt Scamander’s suitcase, leaving the wizard with the task of tracking them down before they wreak havoc on the non-magical world and reveal the wizarding community.

If you’re wondering what some of these magical creatures are in the aforementioned most recent trailer, Warner Bros. has revealed the names and a few details on them. One of them is even the symbol of one of the Ilvermorny wizarding school, the American equivalent of Hogwarts. Find out about the Fantastic Beasts magical creatures after the jump. Read More »

This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

We live in an age where pop culture never dies.

No one mourns the loss of a beloved show – they wait for Netflix or Amazon to rescue it. Beloved movies from decades past are granted sequels that double as soft reboots. If something does come to a definitive end, you can always count on the comic book series to fill in the narrative gaps, or the fan conventions that keep the spirit alive. Nearly 50 years ago, a letter-writing campaign saved Star Trek from cancellation after its second season. Today, it’s hard to imagine anything with a passionate following completely slipping through the cracks. It will find a way to live on, to endure. We don’t need to fight for what we love anymore, because everything finds a way of staging a return.

And the past year has seen the return of two of the most popular titles in recent pop culture history. Last December, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened to record-breaking box office. More recently, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened on the London stage, continuing the former boy wizard’s adventures in a new medium while fans snatched up millions of copies of the play itself. And while one of these is a space opera and the other a fantasy tale of magic, these projects have a great deal in common. They’re bound not by creators or parent companies or even the same audience, necessarily. They’re bound by similar intentions and goals and executions.

Most importantly, they both take the concept of a happy ending behind the shed and shoot it dead.